


The Transition

by TianShan



Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Dominance, M/M, Multi, Submission, voyerism
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-09-01 01:49:18
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8602462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TianShan/pseuds/TianShan
Summary: After the Austro-Prussian war, Germany is to be handed over to Prussia as part of the spoils. Prussia has a plan to make this as effective as possible for all parties, and to make points that won't be forgotten. This first chapter isn't Explicit, but the rest of it definitely will be. Dominant Prussia, submissive Austria and Germany.





	

_23 August 1866, Prague_

In all honesty, Austria accepted the summons to Wenceslas Square with faint bemusement. Apparently he was to meet Prussia inside the National Museum of all places; Austria was reasonably sure that there was no dungeon located here.

This wasn't normally how things were done between them. At all.

Once inside, he was instructed that 'Beilschmidt' could be located in the natural history section and was last seen among the collection of pinned beetles. That got a bit of a smile out of Austria despite the situation - it figured that one would find Prussia grubbing around with the insects.

And indeed, Prussia himself was standing before a large shadowbox full of pinned butterflies. He didn't turn around when Austria approached, but no matter; Austria was reasonably sure the other was aware of his presence by now. After a moment's hesitation, Austria crossed the remaining space between himself and the other nation, stepping beside him to look down at the preserved insects.

"I don't suppose you could have had the decency to choose an _art_ museum?" Austria asked lightly after a few moments had continued to pass in silence.

"I hadn't seen the insect collection as of yet," Prussia responded casually, his hands locked at ease behind his back. "I thought you'd be pleased I was broadening my horizons beyond so-called bloody butchery."

That got a faint snort. "About as pleased as I suppose you are that I didn't show up toting a grand piano."

"I wouldn't think you'd sully your aristocratic hands with hard labor of that sort," Prussia replied, his eyes finally lifting from the trapped butterfly corpses to rest on Austria's face - Austria had always thought those eyes odd; such a strange, fiery red.

At the moment, they held no fire, though - rather a strange serenity that seemed _nothing like_ the wild bloodthirst Austria had become so acquainted with both on the battlefield and in bed.

Austria raised an eyebrow. "I don't suppose you're going to tell me what all this is about, then?"

Prussia hummed. "Yes. About the fact that you lost the war."

"I do believe that is the case," Austria replied, pushing his glasses up his nose. "They are going through the paperwork at the moment, I believe." The unspoken question regarding what the _nations_ would normally be engaging in at this point was purposefully left hanging in the air.

"I think you'll find the terms of it quite favorable," Prussia went on, clearly content to dance around the elephant in the room as much as possible. "Bismarck was quite insistent upon it. When Wilhelm wanted to press forward and take your precious Vienna and annex you, he threatened to resign and then leap from the fourth story window of Nikolsburg Castle."

Austria kept his face schooled to a calm expression. "Well, it seems as though it's my lucky day, then, in more ways than one."

"Yeah, considering how you're not getting your ass fucked to a bloody pulp while chained to the wall and screaming," Prussia went on, as charming as ever. "Though, that always _has_ been one of my favorite pastimes." Here he offered Austria a wolfish smile, which almost made Austria feel somewhat better.

 _That_ expression was more normal.

"Yes, looking at dead insects is indeed more pleasant," Austria replied, voice a touch dry. "Care to inform me about your sudden studious turn?"

"Well, I mostly didn't care to be anywhere around the dignitaries for this particular conversation, as hideous as it's going to be to their sensibilities," Prussia said with a shrug, finally turning around and leaning against the glass butterfly display - Austria opened his mouth to object to it, but thought better and kept quiet. "While the humans are perfectly aware of the natural course of events after war, they generally don't like to be bothered with the gory details of it."

"As you say," Austria said demurely, trying to glare Prussia's body weight away from the pinned butterfly display. Prussia was correct in this, though - nation sex was generally considered a no-go issue where humans were concerned.

Prussia crossed his arms. " _First_ , I want to talk to you about the boy."

Austria flicked his eyes up. "You mean Germany?"

Prussia nodded. "How is he?"

Austria hummed. "Turned into a fine young man, he has," he said.

Prussia's eyebrow went up. "So he's grown?"

"Considerably, over the past seven weeks," Austria said, shaking his head. "He went to bed with the body of a 5-year-old human boy, and then woke up with a teenaged one. Overnight. Like a weed."

Prussia looked to the side for a few moments, clearly considering this before standing away from the glass display - _finally_ \- and uncrossing his arms. "He is untouched, yet?"

 _That_ got a chuckle out of Austria. "I've been a little bit busy with _you_ and North Italy over the past few weeks to be overly concerned with teaching him about the joys of sex," Austria said a little dryly. "Yes, he's still a virgin."

"Good," Prussia said flatly. "Here's the plan. I trust you will find it reasonable."

Austria raised an eyebrow in silent permission for him to continue.

"First of all, North Italy is demanding Venetia--"

"Even _you_ know that I absolutely soundly defeated North Italy," Austria interrupted immediately. "I obviously realize that I have lost to _you_ , but not to _him_. You, of all people, a fellow Germanic, cannot _seriously_ be asking me to cede something to _him_ \--"

Prussia held up a hand and Austria's mouth almost shut of its own volition - nation instincts were _strong_ following periods of defeat and it was _difficult_ for a vanquished nation to outright defy the victor. Austria's mouth twisted in bitterness.

But Prussia's next words were surprising. "What about France, then?" he suggested.

" _France_ wants Venetia?" Austria asked, derailed. "Isn't that going to--"

Prussia shook his head again. "No, he doesn't, and precisely because it would piss the fuck out of North Italy and it would be too far away to govern worth a damn for him. But, whatever. France was neutral. Would you consider ceding Venetia to _France_ , instead?"

"So then _he_ can cede it to North Italy?" Austria asked, a little nonplussed. "Why the middleman?"

Prussia sighed, rolling his eyes. "Because it helps you save face, dumbass. _You_ cede to France, and then France does whatever the hell he wants with it, right? If France wants to fucking hand over his entire plot of _land_ to North Italy, that's not your goddamn business, _right_?"

Austria was silent for a while. "You seem _awfully_ concerned about me, all of a sudden."

"I'm making an attempt not to piss you off too much," Prussia said, shaking his head. "Yeah, it's gonna piss you off a _little_ , but so long as North Italy gets his goddamn Venetia back, I don't give a shit if we pass it around the entire world to get it to him. Anything to shut him _up_."

Yes, that could be a problem when dealing with North Italy, Austria was well aware. "Very well, then." Not that he had any _real_ choice in the matter - but Prussia was right, this was much more agreeable than handing over land directly to a defeated adversary.

Also, it was a surprising stroke of consideration from a nation that was usually hellbent on humiliating Austria. Very odd. Something was clearly afoot.

"Good," Prussia said with a curt nod. "I have no desire for any of your shitty territory, so you can keep all of it. You should appreciate my kindness in this arena."

"You just told me that Bismarck threatened to jump out a _window_ if you took any of my territory," Austria responded flatly.

"Neither here nor there," Prussia replied loftily. "Also, you will deliver the boy to me. The German Confederation is over. _You_ will have nothing to do with the rest of his upbringing. The boy will make witness of our _business dealings_ later on tonight."

"So you're going to have _him_ watch you chain me to a wall and rape me?" Austria asked, his lip ticking up. "I'm sure he'll be just _thrilled_ to enter your care full-time after such a spectacle."

"Nothing of the sort," Prussia replied. "You will find that we will be _conducting business_ in a very high-class hotel in Prague, and I would not wish to pay for a new mattress or bedsheets."

Here, Prussia's lip curled upward in a predatory smirk - he took one booted step toward Austria, and another, and another… the metal in his boot soles caused sharp sounds to echo around the large stone room.

Austria stood his ground, but closed his eyes when Prussia's hand reached up and gently, almost _lovingly_ , wound the loose strand of hair representing beautiful Mariazell around his fingers. Sensation immediately shot down Austria's spine and coiled behind his balls, his nipples automatically tightening - the natural submission and sensitivity of a defeated nation coming to the fore.

"And it's not like I don't know how to make you feel good," Prussia nearly _purred_ into his ear, keeping a taut hold on the lick of hair. Austria could almost _feel_ Prussia's smile. " _I'll_ make sure he sees you moan for me, sees you begging for my cock, sees your mouth bulging with it. _He'll_ know who the master is."

Austria swallowed thickly, keeping his eyes closed and not responding. After a few moments, Prussia released Mariazell.

"They'll give you the name of the hotel when you leave the museum," Prussia informed him. Sharp clacks of metal against stone indicated him walking away.

When the noise receded into silence, Austria opened his eyes to trace the wings of the butterflies yet pinned in the display. 

 _Pinned down, all of us_ , Austria thought ruefully, before making his own exit, considerably slower.

  
# # #

Germany felt like all of the blood had run out of his face and pooled into his feet. " _Prussia_?" he managed, feeling a bit faint. "I-I'm going to live with _Prussia_?"

Austria sighed, and leaned forward, pushing Germany's cup of tea toward him. "Drink your tea," he said firmly.

Germany knew Austria well enough to realize that the unspoken end of that sentence was, "or I'm not going to say anything else until you do," so Germany reached forward and picked up the teacup automatically, bringing it to his lips.

But even when he swallowed, he could taste no tea. Only heat.

Austria leaned back into his seat. "You'll likely find that he treats you better than you're thinking at the moment," he said, voice calm and sedate as always. He steepled his fingers thoughtfully. "It's usually _me_ he specifically likes to torment."

"And… and when is this going to happen?" Germany asked, feeling a sick tightness in his stomach.

Austria sighed again - Germany _did not like_ all this sighing - and his eyes took on an almost pitying look. "You are to leave my custody this evening," he started slowly. "After you witness… the proceedings."

" _What_ proceedings?" Germany asked, pushing the teacup to his mouth again as Austria's gaze subtly shifted to it. This time, though, he just wet his lips.

Austria looked at him for a long moment, and Germany had to fight to keep from squirming under the intensity of his gaze. Austria very rarely spoke above a low, musical tenor, but his _looks_ were heavier than iron ore. "That charlatan even stuck me with 'the talk,'" Austria muttered, seemingly to himself.

Before Germany could ask what _that_ meant - and asking questions was getting more difficult as the fear grew - Austria leaned forward. "You must know that humans have sex to reproduce," he said, shifting the focus of the conversation so fast that Germany's head wanted to spin.

"…yes," Germany replied, confused.

"And for pleasure, I suppose, but reproduction is the generally-considered main point of the act," Austria continued on in his steady tone. "Nations can have sex for pleasure, and some of us do more than others - France can barely keep his genitals in his pants - but the main point of _nation_ sex is politics."

There was another too-heavy silence as Germany nervously tallied all that up. "…you want me to watch you…"

"I'm not the one wanting this," Austria said dryly, "but I'm not the one making the terms because I have lost the war."

Germany was shocked into silence for a brief moment before sounds came out, all broken syllables. "But-- but-- I-- I-- I don't _want_ …"

"What you want or don't want isn't relevant," Austria cut in, raising an eyebrow. "You have no agency in this. And neither do I."

Germany fell silent and looked into his tea, his entire insides writhing with horror and fear. After a moment, he heard Austria stand, and footsteps come around the table. Austria's hand rested on his shoulder.

When Germany managed to look up, Austria's violet eyes were crinkled in the smallest of kind smiles. Germany wanted to fall into it and hide. "You'll be fine," he said quietly. "He's not actually a monster. None of us are."

Germany didn't think he'd _ever_ understand how the old ones were so _calm_. It all seemed utterly terrifying to him and it made him feel like a baby even though his body had the form of a hale young man.

# # #

Everything seemed to happen so quickly - by the time that Germany had managed to get back to his room after his briefing with Austria, everything had been packed in trunks and was ready to be handed over to Prussia's entourage.

He had a few hours to pass before he had to watch his new mentor rape the old one, Germany supposed, so he might as well try and take the time to read. Of course, his concentration efforts were considerably less fruitful than usual and he found himself reading the same page over and over and over without understanding it.

He was sitting dejectedly on the bed when there was a soft knock at the door: Austria, again, holding yet another steaming cup of tea. Germany stood, a little surprised - Austria was usually quite fussy about beverages being consumed outside of typical beverage rooms - but Austria waved his hand and motioned for him to sit down.

"How are you feeling?" Austria asked in his quiet, reassuring tone, crossing the room to sit next to him. He offered the cup to Germany.

Germany took a shaky breath and looked at the tea - it was unlikely that Prussia was as staunch as Austria was about tea, and while Germany had found it overbearing at times, he knew he was going to miss it.

His breath caught in his throat and he looked helplessly up at the older nation, unsure what to say.

Austria's mouth bent in one of his small, knowing smiles. "So you feel like a trophy being passed around and nobody actually cares about you?"

Germany looked down. Austria held out the cup of tea - placed on a saucer, perfectly centered, never rattling - and Germany felt awful when the hands he reached out to take it were shaking.

He felt a warm hand resting between his shoulder blades - large, thin hands, pianist's hands, hands that played instruments expertly. "That's not true," the steady, soft voice said. "I care for you. You have brought joy to my life and I'm sorry to see you go."

The cup in Germany's hands started to rattle on its saucer because he was shaking so much - Austria's other hand reached out and rested over it, silencing the noise, steadying it.

"Prussia will care for you, too," Austria went on, a continual metronome of reason. "And if I must give you up, which I must, you will be in good hands with him. He won't be cruel to you. But I want to give you some advice, because when we _see_ Prussia tonight… some things are going to happen and they're going to be out of our control. You need to be prepared for them. I… would have mentioned this earlier but I didn't want to risk the staff hearing."

Germany, his heart already thumping in his throat, looked silently up into those steady violet eyes, seeking anchorage.

Austria sighed. "Sometimes, encounters like this can be quite violent, but this time it appears that will not be the case. We're going to a hotel local to Wenceslas Square, so clearly nothing overly… messy is going to occur. From what Prussia told me earlier, it sounds like he intends to make it… rather pleasurable for me."

"And?" Germany asked, voice a little high pitched with emotion and fright. His eyes felt like they were going to pop out of his head.

Austria sighed and carefully removed his hand from the cup of tea. "Drink your tea."

Obediently, the teacup went to Germany's mouth.

Austria nodded, satisfied. "Basically, I… want to prepare you to see a side of me that you haven't before," he said, voice going a little slower. "If the victorious nation decides that he wants to _please_ the vanquished rather than hurt - which seems to be Prussia's plan - it, ah, can be…" he paused, clearly searching for the right word, "…very, very pleasureful."

Germany was trying to imagine Austria, calm, serene, eloquent Austria, in a "very, very pleasureful" situation. No images came to mind.

Austria pushed his glasses up his nose. "I'm not entirely sure how this is going to be affected with _you_ there or not, though," he continued, "since this is an entirely unique situation in my experience. I imagine that when _you_ see Prussia's dominance over _me_ , Prussia believes that it will trigger _your_ submission to _him_ , as he's the current dominant German state. I am not sure what this will look like on your end, though."

The teacup was still frozen against Germany's mouth. Austria chuckled. "You're supposed to drink the tea," he said softly.

The tea had cooled to a reasonable enough temperature to take a deep draught of it, which Germany did. "W-what do I do?" he managed, when his throat became somewhat unstuck.

"Generally, following your instincts in this is the right thing to do," Austria went on serenely. "They don't steer you wrong. I just didn't want you to be caught unprepared - they _can_ be quite strong. Again, don't be afraid: I don't think Prussia wants to seriously hurt either of us."

Germany lowered the teacup, and Austria gently rubbed his back. After a few moments, Germany looked up again.

He wasn't sure what was written on his expression, but it was enough for Austria's face to soften slightly and the hand that was on his back gently curled around Germany's shoulders.

Happy for the moment of pure human respite, he leaned into the warm core of Austria's body, breathing in the comforting scent of violin rosin and soap, and let himself be held.

# # #

HISTORICAL NOTES:

THE WAR: This takes place after the Austro-Prussian War, also called the Seven Weeks War. This pitted the Austrian Empire against the Kingdom of Prussia, and ended with Prussia victorious and the dominant German state. Germany's character being passed over from Austria to Prussia is supposed to indicate this. Eventually, the northern German states would combine to form the original iteration of modern Germany, but Austria would be excluded from it (as it is today). Most of the German states actually sided against Prussia (which is part of the reason why Germany is scared).

NORTH ITALY: This war was going on at the same time as the Third Independence War of Italian Unification. Italy ended up siding with Prussia, because Austria held territories (Venetia being the main one) that the Italians wanted to complete their own unification process. However, in this war, while Austria ended up the defeated power, they _were_ able to defeat the Italian part of the coalition, so they refused to cede Venetia directly to Italy for this reason. They ended up ceding it to France, which was a neutral power, who then gave it to the Italians for this exact reason.

PRUSSIA BEING 'NICE': Bismarck actually did threaten to throw himself out the window if the Prussian king decided to go forward and actually try to annex Austria or take Vienna. The reason for this was that Bismarck worried that _other_ European powers may have gotten involved (like France or Russia) if it looked like the balance of power in the region was going to get seriously upset.

Plus, having Austria at least have reasonably positive feelings toward Prussia/what would become Germany was advantageous for the Prussians. The general lack of resentment (or at least not an existence of total burning hatred) allowed Germany and Austria to ally in future conflicts, notably WWI and WWII.

As is what usually happens, this got longer than I originally expected. The next installment will involve everybody having their instincts get the better of them.


End file.
